Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted Monday that The New York Times “died” on Sunday after its editorial page editor resigned for running an opinion piece that supported using the military to quell ongoing protests.
“The NYT literally fired their editorial page editor because he dared publish an op-ed that Leftists disagreed with,” the Republican from Texas tweeted. “The totalitarian Left will brook no dissent. To hell with Free Speech — we are Pravda.”
James Bennet, editor of the newspaper’s editorial page, resigned Sunday, a few days after a controversial guest column penned by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., ran in the paper.
Cotton called on President Donald Trump to “send in the troops” to help shut down violent protests taking place in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, was killed by a white former police officer in Minneapolis. His death has caused anti-police brutality protests to erupt nationwide. Some of the demonstrations have turned violent and destructive.
Bennet approved the piece to run in the paper. Many newspaper staffers took to social media to slam their employer’s decision to run the story.
Bennet said he did not read Cotton's story before it was published, but he defended running the article.
Cruz then tweeted out the date the newspaper was founded and listed Sunday as the day it died.
“New York Times: founded as an actual newspaper 9/18/1851,” he wrote. “Died: 6/7/2020.”
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